Digital HACCP and ISO 22000 for Low-Cost Food Safety Improvement in Institutional Foodservice: A Pre-Post Pilot Study

In public institutional foodservice, food safety depends not only on HACCP documentation, but also on rapid deviation detection, clear responsibility and reliable operational records. This is particularly relevant in school and hospital foodservice, where meals are prepared under time pressure, variable deliveries and increased consumer vulnerability. This paper evaluates a Food Safety Management System improvement model combining HACCP and ISO 22000 requirements with simple digital tools and workplace micro-training. A six-month pre-post pilot study was conducted in a school cafeteria and a hospital kitchen. The improvement package included electronic control lists, digital temperature records with alerts, KPI boards, visual standards and a RACI matrix for CCPs and OPRPs. After implementation, the reported percentage changes refer separately to the school cafeteria (S1) and the hospital kitchen (H1): nonconformities per 1,000 meals decreased by 43% and 40%, mean CAPA closure time fell by 47% and 46%, and temperature-related incidents per 1,000 meals were reduced by 55% and 57%, respectively. Monitoring timeliness and record completeness increased by 10-12 percentage points, near-miss reporting rose from 3 to 7 cases per month in S1 and from 5 to 11 in H1, and cost of quality declined by 24% and 23%, respectively. The findings indicate that low-cost HACCP digitalization can strengthen food safety culture and the PDCA cycle without complex information systems.